14 DAY TRIAL // Zynga and Facebook have had a special deal for a few years now, that's not much of a secret. In fact, parts of the deal have leaked over time and some details were known, even if they weren't official. What was clear was that Zynga enjoyed preferential treatment on the Facebook platform, one that no other developer enjoyed.
Of course, Zynga was and still is the single largest developer on the Zynga platform, by a fair margin, so a special deal isn't entirely surprising.
In order to quell any more rumors and to make sure that potential investors know what they are getting into, Facebook has filed an amendment to its initial IPO filing, explaining the nature of its relationship with Zynga in greater detail.
"The parties acknowledge that FB desires to enable Zynga to build the Zynga Platform on top of the Facebook Platform, and the parties desire to, amongst other goals set forth herein, work together to increase the number of users of each party’s products and services," Facebook wrote in the amendment.
"The parties further acknowledge that Zynga is making a significant commitment to the Facebook Platform (i.e., using Facebook as the exclusive Social Platform on the Zynga Properties and granting FB certain title exclusivities to Zynga games on the Facebook Platform)," it said.
"In exchange for such commitment, the parties have committed to set certain growth targets for monthly unique users of Covered Zynga Games," Facebook added.
In the original IPO filling, it was revealed that Zynga accounts for 12 percent of Facebook revenue, either via Facebook Credits or via ads Zynga buys on the site. Clearly, the two companies are tied to each other.
As such, it's hardly surprising that both are driven to increase their user base, especially since many people come to Facebook to play Zynga games while at the same time many people would not discover and play Zynga games if they weren't using Facebook.